In the conventional binding post terminal one end of the terminal pin, which is usually cylindrical, is bisected by a slot to provide an opposing pair of tines between which one or more wires to be joined to the terminal are placed, the tines serving as a support for the wires until they have been soldered to each other and to the terminal pin. Conventional binding post terminals are often difficult to use in that the wires, once fitted between the tines of the binding post, are often dislodged before they can be soldered in place, particularly where a number of terminals are being interconnected by a large number of wires in a relatively confined space, such as a miniature circuit board. This has led to the practice of temporarily securing the wires to the terminal pins by either bending the wires relative to the tines or by spot soldering the wires in place. Such temporary connections are made before final soldering of the circuit assembly, the final soldering operation being conducted after all of the parts have been temporarily connected together. The temporary attachment of the wires greatly slows down the assembly procedures and requires a multiplicity of additional hand operations. In addition, the rotational positions of the tines must be considered in assembling the parts on a terminal board or other support since the slots should be aligned with the wires they are to engage. The end result is a substantial additional amount of hand labor which is both time consuming and adds to the cost of the assembly.
It has been proposed to eliminate some of the difficulties inherent in a conventional binding post terminal by providing the terminal with sets of intersecting slots so that the wire is bent as it passes through slots. For example, the end of the terminal pin may be of trifurcated configuration, the terminal pin having three legs or tines defined by three radially oriented slots in communication with each other at the center of the terminal pin. The slotted configuration defines a Y-shaped pattern in which the slots are straight and symmetrically located about the center of the pin, the slots being substantially equaangularly disposed relative to each other. Thus, any two slots define a channel having angularly related legs capable of receiving a wire in bent condition. The purpose of such arrangement is to permit the wires to be fitted within the slots without the use of hand tools, and due to the fact that the wire is bent, a mechanical connection is achieved which is adequate to hold the wire temporarily in place without additional mechanical securing prior to final soldering. It is, however, necessary to prebend the wires so that they will fit into the slots, and this is often difficult to accomplish, particularly in miniature size terminals, due to the tolerances which are involved. Consequently, even though the trifurcated construction was intended to facilitate finger insertion of the wires, it is often difficult to achieve and requires extreme concentration and tedious handwork on the part of the installer.
Another major drawback to the trifurcated terminal design lies in the manufacturing operations required to form the multiple slot configuration. Complicated and expensive milling operations are required, and while various expedients have been tried, including the use of center bored splined stock, there is no inexpensive way to manufacture trifurcated or other multi-slotted terminals.
In contrast to the types of binding post terminals characterized above, the present invention provides an improved binding post terminal having an arcuate slot which is easy to fabricate, the configuration of the binding post being such that the wire may be readily fed through the terminal without pre-bending and the wire automatically bent to the desired curved configuration as an incident of displacing the wire toward the bottom of the slot. The improved terminal construction provides a firm mechanical connection of the wire to the terminal pin, and additionally may be provided with a locking flange for the self-locking of the wire.